Inga Swearingen Benefit Concert in Los Osos

Celebrate Los Osos volunteers are laying down their tools and paint brushes to present a benefit concert to raise money for future community projects on Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 2 PM. Inga Swearingen will perform a powerful combination of Americana, folk, soulful jazz and rugged originals through acoustic layers of her band. The group's “quasi-pastoral themes” and “dew-soft arrangements” will be balanced by new additions that have Inga singing Annie Lennox on a National-Resophonic Guitar and a traditional Swedish melody as a blues tune. The concert will be held in the private gardens on the estate of Bill and Monica Lee in Los Osos. Details, a map, parking directions will be provided upon purchase.

The concert is $25 per person. Seating is limited, reserve your tickets early. No-host wine and beer will be served during the event.

As an extra concert feature, fans of acoustic guitar will enjoy hearing jazz, blues and traditional music of Dorian Michael, well-known guitarist who is noted for his sharply defined tunes and infectious music which appeals to audiences around the country.

Ms. Swearingen is a well known and very popular local performer whose talent has now extended internationally. National Public Radio’s Garrison Keillor, creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion, has invited Inga to be the star on the show several times. He says, “Inga has a gorgeous voice, very fresh and evocative and note-perfect, and that’s the sort of person you want to sing harmony to.”

Inga’s Los Osos concert will feature music from her latest CD release, First Rain where Inga ventures into new territory while staking a claim in what she knows best: music and song rooted in family, nature, love and human spirit. These songs are a compelling mix of homegrown folk, and soulful, bluesy jazz, with acoustic layers of guitar, stand up bass, violin and cello that frame Inga’s clear, translucent voice. Whether putting her personal stamp on a jazz standard or combining the understated grooves of bossa nova with Swedish folk melodies, Inga captivates her audience with her gift of joyful melodic invention.

While continuing to be rooted in jazz, Inga is now revisiting her folk and classical influences and creating a sound all of her own. “I studied voice and choral conducting in school,” Inga explains. “In fact, I first sang, “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair”, as an art song with lots of vibrato. It was fun to arrange it as a bossa nova on this album. I like to blur the line between genres and draw inspiration from anything that speaks to my heart. I was influenced early on by Ani DiFranco, and at the same time I love how Bobby McFerrin used his voice as an instrument. I also admire the joy I heard when listening to Ella Fitzgerald sing with all of her being, as though she held nothing back for her next gig. I think the commonality is that all three made music that reflected their life experience.” With First Rain, Inga is digging in and singing from her heart and the audience will be thrilled by her variety, intensity and gentleness.

Generous sponsors are helping to offset the concert’s costs in order to increase the proceeds for future projects. The first to offer their help were the Baywood Bed and Breakfast and the Back Bay Inn.

“While our usual volunteer work is restoring, repairing and renewing things in Los Osos,” stated co-Director, Pandora Nash-Karner, “we are delighted to present this wonderful afternoon of music and gardens.”

Proceeds from the concert will benefit Celebrate Los Osos, a local non-profit corporation, dedicated to making a difference, one project at a time, with highly visible projects, engaging volunteers who want to get their hands dirty “doing good work” for the benefit of Los Osos. Most recently, they helped facilitate the repair of the South Bay Blvd. bridge bear and they restored the iconic large Welcome To Los Osos bear signs on Los Osos Valley Road and South Bay Blvd. Since 2008, Celebrate Los Osos has: repaired, refurbished and repainted the two bear statues at the entrances to Los Osos and Baywood Park; painted the Little League Snack Shack at Monarch Grove Elementary School; designed and built a new fence to enlarge the family picnic area at our Community Park; planted 100 oak trees along the fence; replanted the divider in the parking lot of the California State Oaks Preserve on Los Osos Valley Road with drought-tolerant plants, and replanted the 1100 linear feet of median along Los Osos Valley Road.